True crime story revisits savage killing of First Nation boy and traces injustices back to creation of Canada

OTTAWA, Aug. 21, 2014 /CNW/ - Treaties that go unfulfilled; the government policy of "killing the Indian in the child"; residential schools; land claims – these are some of the historic and current injustices explored in Murder in a Small Town: Another Expendable Child.

In 1992, Teddy Bellingham, a 16-year-old Ojibway in foster care, was beaten to death in Smiths Falls, Ontario. Teddy disappeared without a trace until police received a tip a year later.

Murder in a Small Town attempts to tell Teddy's story by including the historical wrongs that led to his death – far from home -- in an apartment full of drunk, stoned white men.

"250 years ago this month, in 1764, First Nations believed they would share the land equally with the newcomers when they ratified the Royal Proclamation with the Treaty of Niagara," said author Bryan Hendry. "Instead, they were gradually marginalized by successive governments. Today, we have the cycle of poverty that spins ever higher rates of child welfare; suicides; incarceration; and missing and murdered women and children."

New information is revealed about Teddy's killer, who was convicted of assault just last year.

Three of Hendry's popular Crimes of the Century series are also available at www.bryanhendry.com